Hey, check it out: new song! “Me Make Fire“, our submission for Round 2 of the latest iteration of the Masters of Song Fu songwriting competition, is now online.
Our task was the following: “Choose a famous inventor and craft a song proposing a ‘dance craze’ based on either the inventor or one of his/her most well known inventions.” We decided to go with an oldie-but-goodie: fire.
This one, truth told, was kind of a nail-biter. It’s not that we didn’t have any ideas; it’s just that none of them were any good. But we finally hit on this one at about 10 am yesterday, and it stuck. We’re quite happy with the results; Paul got to haul out his long-dormant trumpet skills, and Storm provided further evidence that he’s the Lost Muppet (with a dash of Tom Hanks.) There’s also a number of little tributes thrown into this kitchen sink: the horn section is pretty much Blues Brothers meets “The Horse“; the production is part “Jim Steinman does the ‘Mashed Potato‘”, part “Monster Mash” with a sprinkle of “Alley Oop“; and the “caveman syntax” is (in part*) a nod to our friend and competitor Jonathan Coulton, who was forced to drop out of this round due to imminent new baby-hood. Get some sleep, JoCo!
Of course, there will be a few folks out there who quibble that we’re “not abiding by the rules of the challenge” because, technically, fire is not an invention, nor is the “inventor” famous, per se. Those people are welcome to this opinion.
[*big fancy tip o’ the hat to the Arrogant Worms]
UPDATE: Forgot to mention: please go vote for your favorite song for this round. Voting ends this Wednesday!
[audio:http://www.paulandstorm.com/sounds/newstuff/MeMakeFire.mp3|titles=Me Make Fire]
Me Make Fire
9 Comments
Wow, you two, you’ve really outdone yourselves. This is hilarious…I’m hearing something somewhere between The Monster Mash, the Muppets, and Strong Bad.
I voted for you because it’s a great song, but yes, I’m quibbling that you’re not abiding by the rules of the challenge. Not because fire isn’t an invention – I’ll give credit to Ogg – but because I’m not sure the song “proposes a dance craze”. But you definitely nailed it as far as getting that early 60s dance craze sound, so that’s close enough.
What’s not clear about the “stomp stomp stomp” part?
Bear in mind that dance crazes were much simpler way back then.
P&S.
I liked it, but the background music reminds me a lot of Lame Monster Party, and by connection that song “Monster Mash” by whoever wrote that….
Jack – I disagree entirely that this song doesn’t propose a dance craze. First of all, the line “me dance around fire/Ook Ook/whatever” appears several times throughout. Second, as P&S already mentioned, there’s the chorus. And third, as a dancer, listening to the chorus of this song, I could see in my mind’s eye how it would translate into choreography (ooh, we could play with this, couldn’t we?).
You guys need to get yourselves some dancers like those girls in the Dee Dee Sharp video, then this fire dance will surely take off.
Thanks you sending me hurtling back into my muppet-obsessed childhood! I can actually close my eyes and see Harry Monster dancing to Me Make Fire (I thought maybe Animal at first, but bless the little beastie, he was never that coherant). In fact, give my aging brain time to get a little hazier and you could probably get me to swear I first heard the song on the Muppet Show–and that, gentleman, is the highest acheivement for any artist.
Javier – that wasn’t quite the image I had in mind. 🙂
I love this one, guys! The more I listen to it, the more it’s becoming one of my favorites. I love this Song Fu thing. It’s generating some great new material for you.
Post a Comment